Our Imperfections
by Mystureal
Summary: <html><head></head>First of the "Their Own Tales" series. Raven Serpine and Ara Haan are both patients in Elrios Mental Institute. He has schizophrenia, she has paranoia. But when they spend time together, they soon find themselves having more in common. And they found themselves falling in love. Though when you're mentally unstable, it isn't that easy. A romance and slice of life story.</html>
1. Chapter 1

"Raven, this is the new arrival, Ara Haan. She's from China, please make her feel welcome."

Orange eyes flickered upwards, looking at the large busted female in front of him, giving hiim a large smile. Her crimson eyes were crinkled at the corners, tendrils of soft red hair cascading past her shoulders. Around her, she glowed a light blue aura, slight dinstictions of red around the edges. It would change depending on her mood, from blue to red and vice versa.

Next to her, a girl around the age of seventeen stood, looking at him with uninterested eyes. She would seem like a normal girl, were it not for the whispers in his ear, telling him she was special. She was different. Her aura was a contrasting gold and red.

She looked at him with bizarre gold eyes, eyes half-lidded and seeming cloudy. Her hands nervously clenched and unclenched, her eyes flicking to the side repeatedly.

He looked back down at his drawings, murmuring in response. His ebony hair fell over his eyes and he brushed it away, picking up his pencil again.

"Oh, Raven. Don't be like that. Ara's had a lot to deal with, she's a Paranoid patient. She should be able to relate slightly to you."

He kept his eyes trained on his drawing - a female with long pink hair floating in the breeze. Her face was blank, except for a smile on her face. She seemed like she could laugh her way out of the sketchy landscape of drifting leaves and right beside him on the plain bed.

He could even see her moving, as if getting ready to spring out.

"Ready, Rave?" She whispered in his ear, and he closed his eyes, lingering on the soft tone of her voice.

"Raven?"

He glance up, looking back at the two standing in his doorway. The girl yawned, rubbing her eyes, though she still kept alert.

He narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't know what her intentions were, but he felt she couldn't trust him.

The nurse looked at them both and gave an exasperated sigh. "I'll just leave you to your drawing. Come along, honey."

He watched them walk away, analysing how the girl- Ara- shied away from the redhead, keeping a safe distance. He watched as the last traces of her extremely long ebony hair disappeared from sight and looked back at his drawings.

-x-x-x-

"Okay, dear. Here's your room, where you'll sleep."

The girl looked at the room with little interest. She just knew that anything might happen to her if she let her guard down, if she didn't stay away from this strange lady, who said she should call her Nurse Seighart.

She didn't like the look of her.

She silently listened to her telling her of what to do when needing the toilet, or needing female hygiene products, or that she should press the large red button situated next to her bed if she felt she was in any danger.

She immediately refused the idea. She was in danger every second of her life, no button, no object that was red could make her feel safe.

Red was dangerous, red was a warning. Red was blood.

"Now, Raven will show you around for the first few days. He has Schizophrenia, so you'll have to tread carefully when around him. Be careful if he suddenly starts acting out of character. He's usually calm and silent, so if he stops behaving like that, then stay away from him. Okay, Miss. Haan?"

She didn't reply of course; just walked into the room and started fingering the hem of the bedsheets. She heard a sigh behind her and the Nurse gave her a wry smile.

"Ara dear, I think you'll soon find we're here to help you, not harm you. We know it'll be hard, but within time, we'll be able to co operate. Goodnight, Ara." And Seighart closed the door, walking away.

All the while, she stayed silent.

She always stayed silent.

-x-x-x-

Raven felt sunlight trickle through the curtains in his room and warm his face. He let the sun warm him up for a few seconds, then got up, plodding off to the bathroom to complete his daily morning tasks written up on a post-it note next to the mirror.

He quickly scanned them and began to brush his teeth, training his eyes on himself.

He scanned his scarred face, the white lines standing out on his lightly tanned skin. His eyes were a maple orange; his mouth seemed to be set in a permanent frown. And he could swear he could see the gleam of metal on his left arm. Just almost.

Completing the tasks set for him, he left his room and walked out into the hospital ward, along with a few others, recognising a few faces. He walked past a boy with white hair and purple eyes.

"Hey."

"Hey, Add," Raven said, glancing at the purple line of electricity crackling along his cheek, illuminating the look of insanity in his eyes. He nodded at him, speeding up to keep in pace with the Schizophrenic. He seemed to be in his calmer phases.

"So how's Eve?"

"They said she's still in the coma. They say they're not sure when she's going to wake up."

"Oh. Sorry about that," Raven told him, holding a hand up in greeting to a passing girl with blonde hair in a ponytail. The only thing he knew was that she was someone with ADHD and greatly annoyed everybody she talked to or played games with luck in it. She was called Ariel or something similar to that.

Add shrugged, managing a small smile which just added to the lunatic look. "It's cool. They say she has a great chance of waking up one day, though. I could still have a chance of getting her codes."

Raven stared at him. "Her codes?"

"Yeah. Her EB Codes."

"You mean her ElBerry Pin?" Raven corrected. The male shrugged.

"Anyway, how's your Bipolar been?" The ebony haired patient asked him. Add scratched the back of his head.

"I don't know. They say it's less frequent than before, but when I go batshit crazy, it's worse than before. I'm worried, man. What's going to happen to me?"

The two silently dwelled on their thoughts, entering a large open room, with many doors leading off into different areas of the ward.

"Well, I need to go take my meds." Raven told Add. "I'll see you at lunch."

The Bipolar patient said his goodbyes then went to the Bipolar section, whilst Raven made his way to the Schizophrenic and Paranoid section. He opened the door, greeted a black haired nurse who seemed infatuated with him and fighting, or sparring as she so conveniently called and bumped into the girl from earlier.

She was taken by surprise and found herself sprawled across the floor, a look of shock on her face. He immediately apologised and reached out to clasp her hand to pick her up from the ground.

She immediately scowled, her aura spiking and flashing red, and slapped his hand away, picking herself up. She gave him a look of great anger and walked off with her hair glinting white, leaving a confused Raven.

He stared after her and frowned.


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, you're all done for today."

Ara winced in pain as the needle was swiftly pulled out of her flesh. She was given a cotton swab and held it onto the small puncture hole.

She hated injections.

The blonde nurse smiled warmly at her. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Ara murmured incoherently, not wanting to answer the nurse. Haan didn't trust her. She looked like she was hiding an evil persona underneath her large grins.

She also hated large smiles.

Suddenly, whilst walking out, she heard a crash from the section besides her.

"How dare you treat me like this!" A seemingly obnoxious voice bellowed out, catching the attention of most of the patients in their different sections. It seemed to be coming from the Delusional section.

Peeking in, she saw a young girl with grape coloured hair flowing wildly across her face, look down at Nurse Seighart.

"I'll have you know I'm the greatest mage that ever lived. I am the great and powerful Aisha," She shrieked, waving around a large IV pole. Seighart got up and alongside a black haired male nurse, tackled the crazy patient to the ground.

"Don't you dare! You can't get rid of my power! I will destroy you all!" She screamed, then sobbing suddenly as she was dragged off, fat tears rolling off her pale cheeks, hands clutching desperately at the floor.

Ara hated the insititute even more.

-x-x-x-

"Raven, did you hear?"

He looked up from his drawing, this time, one of the Bipolar male he had talked to earlier. He looked at Ariel. She was shaking slightly, eyes wide and slightly unfocused. She seemed to glow slightly and her skin seemed to be tinted a slight pink. It seemed she needed to get her injections again soon, or his schizphrenia was playing up again.

"Aisha went crazy and had to get dragged off," She burbled, ponytail swinging from side to side. Raven frowned. He vaguely knew the patient, who suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She seemed to be in touch with reality most of the times, so it was confusing as to why she had snapped so suddenly.

He nodded slowly and the ADHD patient scuttled off to tell somebody else the news that was spreading through the hospital.

Raven sketched the finishing touches to his drawing and suddenly felt someone over his shoulder. He looked behind him, to see Ara watching him from a small distance. She seemed to be interested in his drawings. Him, not so much.

"Need anything?" He asked her, putting the pencil down and turning around to her. He could see her eyes as red again, hair white at the edges.

She looked at the sketchpad, before shaking her head and turning away, walking off to explore. Raven frowned after her, before sighing and leafing through his pad.

There were mostly drawings of the pink haired girl, some watercoloured, some sketched. The rest consisted of the other patients in the institute who he had grown slightly close to.

There was Eve, with golden eyes and her appearance robot-like, Ariel with her face slightly distorted and wild looking, Nurse Seighart and Nurse Rena, the former with her aura and the latter with elf features.

Raven wished he knew what they really looked like.

What he really looked like.

-x-x-x-

Ara wandered down the hospital corridors, unsure of what to do. She wasn't ever this bored at home. She enjoyed living with her family, especially her brother. But then it all went wrong and then she found herself being whisked off to Elrios Mental Institute. She didn't trust anyone here, they all had reasons to hurt her, she was sure of it.

Especially Raven.

She disliked him the most. He always seemed to be sketching away, always people, always faces. It unnerved her, including his scars. She couldn't stop thinking about how he could have got them and it made her worry for her safety.

Whilst dwelling on her thoughts, Ara came past a room and looked in, seeing Cerulean eyes stare back at her.

The boy was huddled in the corner, arms wrapped around himself. He rocked gently back and forth, humming a small lullaby to himself.

Ara felt a sense of ease around him and stepped into full view.

"Hello," she whispered softly. The male jumped, wide eyed.

He pushed himself even further into the corner, fear written all over his face. His blond hair fell over his eyes and he gave a small whimper.

Ara frowned, before backing out of the room, hearing the boy breathing heavily. She then walked away, back to the main hall. She saw Raven there, and immediately turned away, feeling the male's eyes bore into her. Ara walked back to her own room, missing the past.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay, gather up, everybody!" The sound of clapping resonated throughout the hall, catching the attention of the patients waiting inside.

Raven looked away from Ara and to Nurse Camilla. A couple of days had passed, yet she still mantained the same air of distrust around him.

They avoided each other mostly and when they crossed paths, they kept their heads down, their mouths shut and their feet moving.

"Now, Rena, Seighart and I think that there is too much negative energy between some of you," A wince from Raven. "So we decided to hold an event for you guys."

"It's a spar, right?" Ariel yelled from somewhere inside the crowd. "I want to generate the numbers!"

Immediately, the crowd began to retort in anger and annoyance. Raven sighed, turning back to the Nurse rolling her eyes.

"As much as I would have liked to, no. Apparently, it would break our conduct. So instead, we've decided to have a trust building exercise."

"A trust building exercise?" A young white-haired girl asked, pulling a pink swirled lollipop out of her mouth to speak.

"Yes, Echo. You'll be paired up and you'll spend a few days getting to know each other well."

Raven frowned, before looking around. He wouldn't mind getting Add; he could deal with his sudden changes in behaviour. Ariel would be a headache, he felt sorry for whoever got the ADHD girl.

Camilla then held up a clipboard, scanning through it quickly.

"Okay, so we've got… Lento and Ariel…" The two looked at each other, before the former groaned.

"...Echo and Hanna…" The two girls smiled at each other, Hanna fixing the cat beanie on her head.

"Aisha and Add."

"Nurse, Aisha's been taken away," The white haired male told her. Camilla gave a soft frown, before inspecting her clipboard again.

"Alright, Add and Eve?"

"Nurse, Eve's in a coma…" He reminded her in an irritated tone. Raven winced slightly, feeling the male's uncomfort.

"Geez, Add. Way to chase away all the girls." A few patients tittered, before being silenced by Add's look. He looked to the side, a mixture of anger and sadness on his face. Camilla stuck her tongue out in one cheek, flipping through the clipboard again.

"Okay, then go with Lucy."

The brunette looked at him cutely, which caused him to twitch.

"Good luck, man." Raven called out to him.

"You bet I'll need it," He muttered back.

Camilla steadily moved along the list, each pair either smiling or glaring at each other. Raven found the pair of Chung and Allegro, the boys suffering from extreme Social Anxiety Phobia, an interesting pair. The blonde haired boy would get frightened at anyone who would pass him and Allegro could barely speak.

"Finally, Raven and Ara."

Raven Serpine's eyes widened before meeting Ara Haan's own golden orbs. Their gaze held for a few seconds, before she rolled her eyes, turning away.

"So I want to see you all with each other, or else you're facing punishment, okay? Now get out."

* * *

><p>Ara walked towards her room, hand on the knob when she spun around.<p>

"Why are you following me?" She asked Raven.

The male looked at her with maple orange eyes.

"We're supposed to stick together. We're partners for the exercise."

"Well, you don't have to follow me everywhere do you?" She asked him, closing her door and crossing her arms in irritation.

"Well, I don't want to get punished. Also, I think you'll recall that Nurse Seighart asked me to look after you."

"Well, she also said that I should stay away from you if you suddenly stop being silent."

Raven stared at her. She stared back.

"Well, I'm not in one of my turns," He replied, shifting his arm. She looked down at them.

"What is that?"

"My sketchpad, why?" Raven asked, glancing at the item.

"Who have you drawn in it?" She asked, a suspicious feeling growing in her.

"Well, everybody in the hospital really."

"Did you draw me?" She suddenly asked. Raven looked at her.

"I-"

"You did, didn't you?" She exclaimed, before yanking the book out of his grasp. She moved away from him and flicked through it, before she landed on a picture of her.

It was one of her when she had sat outside on a balcony for a few minutes, a serene smile playing on her lips. She seemed to be staring off to the side, to an unknown scene which emitted calm and peace from her.

She curled her lip in anger.

"How dare you draw pictures of me without my consent," She told him in a dangerously low voice.

"Give me my book back," Raven told her, eyes slightly narrowed.

"Fine." She told him and he stepped forward to recieve his belongings, before she ripped out her drawing.

"Wha…" He gasped, looking at the paper in her hand.

"Don't draw me ever again." She warned, tossing his book to him. He caught it and looked down at it in silence, before turning away to go to his own room.

She stared at his back, before looking at the drawing again.

* * *

><p><strong>Hawk Smith - Thanks for reading!<strong>

**Sugarlatte - Thanks for reading! And you've already met Chung. Everybody is their base class and Eve will come soon, don't worry.**


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